Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri: Edited with Notes and Biographical SketchDenig, Edwin Thompson
History
Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri: Edited with Notes and Biographical Sketch
Denig, Edwin Thompson
Assiniboine Indians; Indians of North America -- Missouri River Valley
13. Middle-aged Women, Wé-yah-pe. These are the wives of the soldiers
or middle-aged men, and their time is employed in dressing skins,
cooking, drying meat, taking care of their children, making cloth for
their family. They are always busy, but can not be said to lead a too
laborious or miserable life.
14. Very Old Women, We-noh-chah (Sioux), Wa-kun-kun-ah (Assiniboin).
On these fall all drudging and scullionry, some of their occupations
being too disgusting to relate. They also pound meat and berries, make
pemmican, carry burdens, and are used pretty much as one of their dogs.
They are thrown into the fort or left on the prairie to die by their
own relatives.
15. Boys and Girls, Och-she-pe wechin chap-pe. The boys hunt rabbits,
set traps for foxes, play, but they seldom quarrel; they are great
pests and nuisances, both in camp and in the fort; they are spoiled by
their parents—forward, officious, tormenting, and impudent. The girls
are modest, timid, and exceedingly well behaved.
Very Small Children, Yaque-ske-pe-nah, are carried about on the backs
of their mothers, or packed on dogs; they stand severe cold well, do
not cry much, and are suckled for two or three years. The children
are as well taken care of as they can be in the roving mode of life
of their parents, but being subject to exposure in all weather and
accidents. About two out of five are raised.
The ahkitchetah regulate the hunt. The buffalo are not hunted by a
large camp as each individual chooses, but surrounded by the whole
camp at one time, which we will describe in that part of the report
which refers to hunting and to game laws. The dogs for these hunts are
determined by the chief and soldiers in the soldiers’ lodge, and the
people are individually forbidden to hunt or in any manner to raise the
buffalo before that time. The reason is that by going in a body and
hemming in or surrounding them, some hundreds of the animals are slain
in a short time, whereas by one man’s individual hunting the whole
herd would be frightened and run away and the camp thereby be always
in a starving condition, instead of having abundance of meat as is the
case when the laws respecting the surround are enforced. Should any
person or persons violate these laws, after the decree of the soldiers’
lodge has been published, they (the soldiers) meet him on his return
home, take his meat, kill his dogs, or horses, cut his hides up, cut
his lodge to pieces, break his gun and bow, etc. If the individual
resists or attempts to revenge any of these things he is shot down on
the spot by the soldiers, or struck down by a tomahawk and pounded
to death. Occasionally they are also thrashed with bows, in addition
to the breaking of the gun, etc. The writer has seen two killed and
many severely thrashed for these misdemeanors. The consequences of
destroying the hunts are serious to the whole camp, hence the violent
penalty and examples are made occasionally which serve to increase the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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